Gin Avid

Up, up and away

The Avid’s combination of stability and handling translates into a superior climbing experience. The wing is informative enough to help you make the most of lift, yet the brakes offer authority and precision. Whether turning tightly or more flat, the Avid always remains well balanced. Feedback through the brakes is direct, and its inherent pitch and roll stability enables you to effortlessly maximise your climb—and have fun doing so!

Top class glide performance

The Avid’s glide is among the best in its class, and in many instances, it will keep up with wings in the category above. 3rd generation Equalized Pressure Technology (EPT) ensures that the internal pressure in the wing remains as constant as possible, which means that the shape of the wing is maintained and aerodynamic efficiency improved. The Avid’s profile and aspect ratio is derived from the Explorer 2, a wing which has an excellent track record in its category.

Fabric for harsh environments

The fabric of the Avid was developed by GIN and their technical partner Myungjin. The Myungjin MJ40MF and MJ32MF fabrics are intended to withstand harsher, more abrasive environments. After a long development process, this fabric was first introduced in their tandem glider and has proven to have excellent qualities.

Calm, cool, collected

The Avid has an innate pitch stability. It bites enthusiastically into lifty lines, yet settles quickly overhead. Collapses are a rare thing in flyable air and even if they do occur, recovery is stress-free. And even on windier, more thermic take-offs, the wing has a tendency to remain anchored above your head.

Rear riser control system

The Avid features a smart riser with a control toggle and a Harken pulley for extra smooth operation (in case you prefer a more conventional riser, the B/C line is removable). Push half bar, take the riser and enjoy the view! The ideal introduction to flying with the rear risers!

Built for travel

Despite the heavier fabric, the Avid is still relatively light due to its construction. A strategic mix of new formula plastic rods and Nitinol (Nickel titanium) wire provides greater dimensional stability, performance and more compact packing.

Designer's notes

Designer and CEO Gin Seok Song explains the development of the Avid:

The Avid draws heavily on our GIN LAB wind tunnel research we are carrying out in partnership with a university here in Korea. This is a major project that has already produced some insights that are trickling down into production wings. This work helped a lot to optimise the sail tensioning, which for the pilot means improved climbing and more refined handling.

The Avid’s handling remains well balanced and efficient at a wide range of bank angles and wing loadings. It gives a feeling of stability and control, but it still provides good information on what the air is doing. This is what we consider one of the main benefits of the wing and it translates into low pilot workload. In addition, we have a smart riser with C control system. There’s an additional pulley for extra smooth operation and a toggle for easy control. For the reinforcements, we are also using a combination of a new type of plastic rod and Nitinol wire. The Atlas rods are used in critical nose sections due to their high resistance to breaking, dimensional stability and minimal wear and tear effect. The Nitinol wire on the top surface towards the rear perfectly and precisely supports the trailing edge whilst reducing weight and packing volume.

We’ve also been working closely with Myungjin for some time to develop robust fabrics with the precise characteristics we need. In wings such as our Fuse tandem, we’ve found the longevity of the fabric to be excellent even after hard seasons of tandem flying all around the world.

The Avid is our simply our answer to the pilots who wanted to experience our best performing wing in the EN B category, but whose top priority is not minimising weight.

Flybubble review

Gin Avid is the standard weight version of the Explorer 2, in a way. One of the obvious differences is the materials. The Avid has been made with a new material Myungjin, It's a fabric for harsh environments. It's got a relatively higher aspect ratio, for the high B,so it's 6.07. Generally, gliders with higher aspect ratios have a bit more tendency to stall more easily, plus size is that give you more performance. In particularly, can give you an advantage in sink rate. The Gin Avid feels very taut and very tight, solid, and cuts through the air. If you're trying to turn in tight punchy cores, it is little harder to get around and it makes it more challenging. On the other hand, because the glider is so solid and actually has very good energy retention, it has very direct, sharp handling. But I think it's a little bit more technical to make the glider turn that more tightly, compared to a glider with lower aspect ratio. In weaker soaring conditions, you definitely notice that the Avid is very floaty. It's got a really good sink rate and a very good glide. So when you're just soaring on the ridge or turning in a bit of a bigger thermal then you notice it's got a very good climb rate.

The pilots upgrading from a Low B or even a Mid B glider, and wanting to upgrade to their first High B, depending on the pilot, then the Avid generally wouldn't be my first choice for them. So yeah, I'd put the pilot demands with the Explorer at the higher end of the High B. The Avid is for a pilot who's looking at the higher end of the High B class. Particularly, if they're interested in that very good climb and sink rate and very good glide, they're happy with that more dynamic, more feeling and handling, and feedback compared to some other gliders. The Avid has very good speed and speed trim as well.

— Carlo Borsattino, Flybubble

Watch the Flybubble mini video review:

Materials

Risers

Downloads

Manual

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Certification

EN test report